Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Administration Launches New Enrollment Strategies As Officials And Consumers Prepare For Saturday Opening
The second year of Obamacare enrollment starts Saturday, and the administration is launching a much more precise strategy that uses targeted digital ads, aims at specific demographics and leverages social media, according to senior administration officials who briefed Politico. (Kenen, 11/13)
Obamacare has a language all its own. But few Americans are fluent. A year ago the law鈥檚 supporters were discussing 鈥渘avigators,鈥 鈥渁dvanced premium tax credits鈥 and 鈥渜ualifying life events鈥 鈥 not a vocabulary that primed people to want to hear more. (Villacorta, 11/12)
Will Healthcare.gov work when open enrollment begins on Saturday? That's the question on the minds of Americans who will be logging on to buy health insurance on the government's website. ... In an interview with CBS News National Correspondent Wyatt Andrews, [CEO Kevin] Counihan was confident about the website's functionality, saying, "This is not last year. This is not last year." (11/13)
The second enrollment period for private health insurance under Obamacare begins Saturday and runs through Feb. 15. With that will come a barrage of ads aimed at getting people to sign up, thousands of customers facing decisions about their plans, and lots of eyes on how well things are going at a key time for one of the country鈥檚 most controversial laws. (Becker, 11/13)
The ACA and the open enrollment period are about more than just numbers. With that in mind, California Healthline spoke with several insiders to find out what other issues they'll be paying attention to during the second enrollment period. (Wilson, 11/12)
The federal and state health insurance exchanges open for business Saturday amid guarded optimism that the seemingly successful window-shopping period on HealthCare.gov earlier this week suggests things will go better than last year's torturous roll-out. The federal HealthCare.gov site will have 1,000 more people at its call center. More insurance assistants, known as navigators, have been added in many states. (O'Donnell and Unger, 11/12)
And a new site to compare doctors launches on Monday, giving consumers more tools to choose the right plans for them --
The first comprehensive physician rating and comparison database launches Monday in time for open enrollment on federal and state health exchanges, as well as for many employer-provided plans. The new version of the website Healthgrades.com uses about 500 million claims from federal and private sources and patient reviews to rate and rank doctors based on their experience, complication rates at the hospitals where they practice and patient satisfaction. (O'Donnell, 11/12)
